There are some good observations here. And I think this sort of argument could be fielded against those who claim faith is good because it is useful. How useful is forcing yourself to believe something without any evidence if it is likely to crumble when the going gets really bad? You’re right, I think, in pointing out that the confidence gained from meditation is far less fragile than that gained by ignoring facts.

P.s., I bought “Walk like a god” yesterday, and took a spiritual walk. I meditated for a while on the side of a cliff. Good stuff. I’ll review it soon.

Ah, Teo, you know me so well. (Fun, since we’ve never met.) This is exactly what I needed to do. I’m a little surprised this wasn’t my first instinct, but I was so off-guard by having these feelings at all. Your response was an eye-opener. Thank you.

You know how we talked about how I don’t have religion, but I have faith?

Well, you know, dearie, you *choose* faith. Look at it this way. When someone loves you, and they say, “I love you more than anything,” it’s faith that lets you accept that statement at face value. Faith that, if it were possible to acheive that level of love, then that’s the verbal expression of it. Even though, people being what they are, it’s likely temporary at best, an outright lie at worst. Faith makes life a little sweeter, a little tenderer.

What scares you so much about faith? Your rationality only protects you so far. Faith insulates you when you can’t control anything else.

Ah, I recognize baiting when I see it! :P What “scares” me about faith? Nothing at all, Shanna.

I don’t believe people choose faith. I certainly didn’t choose the feeling I’ve been having the last week or so. It’s a new emotion for me.

When you trust someone you love, I hope it’s because they’ve demonstrated that they are trustworthy. When you trust something you can’t even be sure exists, that’s a different state – nothing has been proven or demonstrated to you, and you’re taking it on, well, faith.

It’s always seemed unwise to me. I prefer to take things as they come. That’s all.

But I didn’t know we were talking about emotions. I think of faith as cerebral, albeit irrational. Emotions are just weird. Chemical cocktails in the blood, the little bastards, neither controllable nor completely fathomable.

Ok (Yes I am VERY late to this party, so sue me!), I’m not letting you off that easy. It’s waaaay to easy to “blow off” something as vague as “faith.” I don’t see faith as irrational, nor do I see it as comparable to trusting someone.

So…you gotta give us some more to go on here, man. What is this “feeling?” What’s it about? Specifically how does it fit with your general issues with faith?

I leave you with this little factoid that I learned at my super liberal Christian church: according to my sources, who generally know their stuff, the original language in Christian creeds has often been mistranslated. What a shock! Not. Specifically, the original word used for what we today translate as “believe” (eg “I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, etc. etc.) did NOT mean cerebral belief at all. It meant something more akin to “I give my heart to.”

Try looking up one of those old creeds and using “I give my heart to” instead of “I believe in.” I can say creeds now, for the first time in my life! Cerebral belief is a very post-enlightenment obsession. That’s not how the ancients lived. Personally, I believe in God…most of the time, anyway. I don’t “believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord” in the way that creed means…but I can “give my heart to” Jesus, albeit with a little looseness in the definition of “only son.” I don’t always know what I believe theologically, but intellectual assent isn’t the core of faith to me. In my case, if I give my heart to Jesus, that means his example will help me decide how to live my life. This is pretty new to me…frankly I’m slightly creeped out by referring to Jesus this much at one time, as I’ve never been very Christocentric. But that’s my take on faith: the focus on intellectual assent is very very modern and not necessarily useful.

OK and I now reread my comment above and wish to clarify:
1) I don’t mean “try those creeds” as though anyone should suddenly convert to Christianity based on this. I meant something more like “see how their flavor changes when you sub in these words.”
2) Just to prove how ingrained the reason-obsession is in our world, I wrote above that “I don’t believe…in the way that creed means…” – therein buying in to the very rationality-based definition that I was busy refuting! This stuff runs deep, so it’s no wonder we automatically think of it…but there’s much more richness in our texts and our conversations if we question that.
3) Ditto what everyone said about doubt, by the way. It can feel like the absence of faith, but that’s not necessarily true.
4) I clearly need to read my posts before I hit “comment.”